Chapter 20

Chapter 20. An Incongruous Assembly

***

Cramped.

Severely so.

That was my honest impression.

The second floor of the G City Hall annex.

The first thought that came to mind the moment I opened the door to the Supernatural Ability Management Team’s office was "storage room."

Was it even half the size of a school classroom?

In that narrow space, old metal cabinets were lined up along the wall like folding screens.

There was one window, but the outdoor unit hanging precariously outside blocked half the view.

It was an environment perfect for mold to grow, where even sunlight did not properly enter.

At the center, four desks had been joined in a cross shape, but even those were buried under piles of documents, making the passageway barely wide enough for one person to pass.

The decorative floor tiles had been torn up here and there, and one fluorescent light was flickering as if it had reached the end of its life.

So this was the headquarters of the Hunter team under City Hall...

Inefficient flow, suffocating density.

The words budget shortage dominated the entire space.

Strangely, however, it did not feel dirty.

The items were old, but their alignment was razor-sharp.

Compulsively orderly.

CRACKLE—

A faint noise broke the silence.

It sounded like an electric current flowing, and also like dry firewood burning.

The source of the sound was a small space in the corner of the office, separated by a partition.

A man was absorbed in his work while wearing an appraisal magnifier.

A youthful face that looked to be in his early twenties.

Neatly combed-back hair and horn-rimmed glasses.

And a checkered shirt, known as the uniform of engineering students.

'An Appraiser?'

He was holding a black sphere in his hand.

An unidentified item freshly taken from a Gate.

A normal Appraiser would have injected mana and examined the resonance reaction, but he was different.

'He’s dissecting it.'

The mana extending from his fingertips was as fine and sharp as thread.

It was physically peeling away the black mist covering the surface of the sphere.

Like a surgeon holding a scalpel and cutting away tissue from an affected area.

Precise, and eerily calm hand movements.

If ordinary appraisal was "reading a book’s cover," his method was "tearing the book apart and directly checking the pages."

Far more dangerous, and far more difficult.

If his mana control deviated by even 1 micrometer, it was a gamble that could destroy the item itself.

And yet he was calmly enjoying that gamble.

That was not in the realm of talent.

It was madness.

FSSSSSH.

The black mist dispersed, and a silver artifact revealed itself inside the sphere.

It was a perfect extraction without even a 0.1 mm margin of error.

"Hoo."

The man pushed up his glasses and caught his breath, then wiped the lenses with the end of his sleeve.

Only then did he seem to notice our presence, and he sprang up from his seat in surprise.

"Team Leader, you’re here?"

"Yeah, Jae-hee. Say hello. This is Hunter Kim Do-jin."

Kim Dae-han lightly patted my back.

"Allow me to introduce him. Our team’s treasure, Appraiser Chu Jae-hee."

So this was the man.

The items that had been in the steel suitcase last time.

He was the person responsible for drawing out the miraculous figure of 99.8% appraisal accuracy.

"Nice to meet you. I am Kim Do-jin."

"Ah, yes! It’s an honor. I’m Chu Jae-hee."

He hurriedly held out his hand.

His palm was smooth, without a single callus. Not the hand of a combatant.

But the remnants of mana I felt from his hand were sharp.

Ultra-precise mana control still vibrating faintly.

'He’s a monster.'

Even before my regression, I had never seen this type of Appraiser.

Most Appraisers tended to be artist types who relied on "instinct."

By contrast, this man was an engineer type who relied thoroughly on "analysis."

Not eyes that read data, but eyes that dismantled structures.

"Um··· Hunter."

Chu Jae-hee carefully opened his mouth.

Beyond his glasses, his eyes sparkled with curiosity.

"By any chance··· are you satisfied with the Dragon Head Sword?"

"Yes. Thanks to you, I am using it well. Its mana conductivity is excellent."

"I’m glad. That sword had a slightly tangled internal circuit, so I made a few small adjustments. I increased the mana amplification rate by about 3%, but I wasn’t sure if you would feel the difference."

A 3% tuning.

It sounded easy, but touching the circuit of an already completed artifact was more dangerous than disarming an explosive.

And he said that so calmly.

"When you have time later, please entrust the sword to me once. If I modify the rune character array just a little, I think I can increase its response speed even more."

"···I will leave it to you, then."

Inwardly, I clicked my tongue.

I could see why Kim Dae-han had called him a "treasure."

Why had such a talent not accepted a scout offer from a large guild and instead gotten cooped up in this attic-like room?

I would have to ask Kim Dae-han later.

"Your seat is here."

The place Kim Dae-han guided me to was the innermost part of the office, beside the window.

It could be called a prime spot, or it could be called a place of exile.

I stood before the desk assigned to me.

"······."

I nearly sighed.

There was at least a thin LCD monitor on the desk, but its edges had yellowed with age.

The main computer body gave off a whirring fan noise.

The sound of a cooler screaming at the end of its life.

[Asset No.: G City Hall-2015-0824]

A sticker on the side of the computer body.

1.  

A ten-year-old antique.

It would probably take enough time to drink a cup of coffee just to open one internet window with this.

The phone in my hand was faster.

The telephone was even more absurd.

A wired phone with a red sticker reading [Civil Complaint Response Use].

The receiver cord was twisted into curls, and old grime was stuck between the buttons.

The desktop looked glossy and clean at first glance, but when I looked closely, the coating had peeled away and the wood grain had risen.

"What do you think? I even waxed it while working overtime yesterday."

Kim Dae-han asked with a proud expression.

I swept a finger across the corner of the desk.

There was no dust.

But the traces of time could not be erased.

"It is clean. Thank you."

I planned to wipe it again, but I nodded out of courtesy.

"Ah, and this is a special bonus."

Kim Dae-han pointed to one side triumphantly.

The corner of the break room.

Beside an old refrigerator, one object gleamed brilliantly.

A latest-model espresso machine.

A silver majesty that looked more expensive than everything else in this office combined.

"I bought it with my own money. Because you said you like brewed coffee, Mr. Do-jin."

"······."

This man was impossible to pin down.

He gave me a ten-year-old piece of junk for a work PC, but bought a coffee machine that looked like it belonged on the first floor of a department store.

How exactly were his priorities arranged?

"I like it. I will drink it well."

I let out a small laugh and set down my bag.

At least it was not instant coffee.

In this narrow and old office, it was the only thing I liked.

"Let us have a cup of coffee."

***

Kim Dae-han brewed coffee skillfully.

An Americano topped with rich crema.

The aroma was surprisingly excellent.

We sat facing each other at the absurdly cramped meeting table.

The chair creaked.

"Now that you have officially become a team member, I suppose I should brief you on the work."

Kim Dae-han’s gaze grew serious.

The joking air disappeared, and the air of a veteran settled over him.

"The Supernatural Ability Management Team. It sounds grand, but in reality, we are a cleanup squad."

He gave a bitter smile.

"Within G City’s jurisdiction, Gates large and small open constantly. Private guilds stake their claims on large Gates or profitable dungeons on their own. The problem is everything else."

So-called "shit Gates."

Places with low Mana Stone content, or monsters too troublesome for the numbers to work out.

Or abnormal phenomena that occur because of residual mana even after a Gate closes.

Cleaning up those dregs the guilds ignored was this team’s main job.

"We have no budget and no manpower. Currently, our combat personnel number only four, including you, Mr. Do-jin. Even before you came, the best we had were E-Rank and F-Rank."

It was miserable.

No wonder the mayor had practically bowed to me.

Until I arrived, this team had been trying to stop a typhoon with a single broom.

"What if an Elite-Rank Monster jumps out of a Gate?"

"Then··· we have to beg."

Kim Dae-han spoke self-mockingly.

He gestured with his chin toward a pile of documents stacked at one corner of the table.

[Work Cooperation Request - Rejected], [Support Unavailable Notice].

Scraps of paper stamped with red seals.

"We send official cooperation letters to nearby guilds, call around, and beg them for support. Even then, they often kick us aside, saying there is no money in it. Those people start tapping their calculators before we can even send the official document. 'The numbers do not work,' 'we have no manpower'···. They have all sorts of excuses."

His fist clenched tight.

His knuckles turned white.

"Meanwhile, the citizens tremble in fear, and the damage grows. All we could do was put up a control line at the scene and watch."

Powerlessness.

That seemed to be what had been crushing Kim Dae-han, and this team.

"But now things are different."

He raised his head and looked at me.

Strength entered his gaze.

"Because you are here, Mr. Do-jin. Now we do not have to beg. We can solve things ourselves, and we can protect people ourselves."

I took a sip of coffee.

The hot liquid flowed down my throat.

"I doubt you called me here just for after-the-fact cleanup."

"Of course not."

Kim Dae-han lowered his voice.

He took a folded map from inside his coat and spread it out on the table.

A map of G City.

Coordinates marked in red pen were visible on it.

"This is not official work. It is our team’s··· no, my true objective."

He pointed to one location on the map.

"Information gathering. In particular, finding traces related to 'artificial Gates.'"

Hatching-type Gates.

And the collusion between the Gate G.A.R.M and the Cult.

Kim Dae-han had already caught the scent.

"According to my investigation, abnormal waves have recently been detected at several D-Rank Gate coordinates that were supposed to have been closed. In the Bureau’s records, they were processed as vanished."

"The ledgers were manipulated."

"It means someone is secretly maintaining the Gates. They are either raising something, or hiding something."

Kim Dae-han’s eyes turned sharp.

"I will handle the field investigation. Mr. Do-jin, you—"

BANG!

It was then.

The office’s iron door was violently thrown open.

Startled, Chu Jae-hee nearly dropped the sphere.

A man entered.

A man with red hair slicked back.

Wearing a leather jacket and ripped jeans, he swaggered inside.

'What the hell?'

His appearance did not suit the atmosphere of this place at all.

An incongruity as if he alone had been painted in full color inside a black-and-white film.

Each time he walked, the sound of chains clinking together accompanied a faintly metallic stench.

The smell of old blood, and the smell of gunpowder.

He began tapping the access card hanging from his neck against the reader.

BEEP. BEEP BEEP.

It did not seem to scan properly, and irritation crossed his face. In the end, profanity burst out.

"Fuck! Goddamn it! Fucking piece of shit!"

WHACK!

After hitting the access reader once and tagging it again, the door opened.

He moved with lazy steps and threw himself onto the sofa.

Dust puffed up.

He covered his ears with a headset, stared up at the ceiling, and did not move.

Kim Dae-han smiled lightly and greeted him.

"Tae-hwa, you’re here?"

But the man, already buried in the sofa, showed no response at all.

I stared at him quietly.

His face was not unfamiliar.

Scars faintly visible beyond the leather jacket.

The corners of his mouth, curved slightly.

Even with his eyes hidden behind sunglasses, I could feel his intense presence.

Like a beast trapped in a narrow cage, suppressed bloodlust pressed heavily down on the air.

For an instant, my body stiffened.

Before I could even think of why, his name slipped from my mouth.

"···Hong Tae-hwa?"

Memories from before my regression surged through my mind.

Before my regression, he had shaken Hunter society with his name alone.

He had far fewer tattoos than he did back then, but it was unmistakable.

His alias was "Raging Demon."

The uncontrollable villain Hunter, Hong Tae-hwa.

That bastard was now right in front of me.